Improvement in congress-gaiters



UNITE STATES PATENT OEEIoE.

CHARLES 1). BIGELOW, OF BROOKLYN, NEw YORK, AssreNon TO BAY- sTATE SHOE AN LEATHER OOMPANY, OF NEW YORK CITY.

IMPROVEMENT IN CONGRESS-GAITERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 177,455, dated May 16, 1876; application filed March 16, 1876.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES D. BIGELOW,

'of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in theManufacture of 'Bootsand Shoes, of which the following is a specification -1n making what is known as a Creole congress-gaiter, the front'is cut in one piece to form the instep and leg, and the shoe thus made, if of heavy leather for Working-men,

renders the top or leg portion, and at the bend of the instep, so stubborn and unpleasant to the wearer that heavy goods of this kind have not 'been'extensively manufactured, although the style of shoe is a very desirable one, as it avoids the necessity of cutting a separate topping-piece of thin material, and stitching it to the front or vamp, and thereby making several'searns that are "liable to rip, in order to get a soft top. a A serious objection to a Creole congress-gaiter is the stubbornness of the top and the instep, which not only hurts the wearer, but tends to destroy the elastic goring, and to avoid this objection] reduce the leather in thickness from about'a little below the base of the gore on the side and the instep in the front to the top of the leg, of both the back and the front, and obtain thereby a thin and pliable top, leaving the balance of -the upper, which bears the principal wear of the shoe, the full thickness. The top part is left of sufficient thickness to sustain the stitching which unites the elastic gore to the front and back. The frontand heel can be The reduction in the thickness of the upper portion of the upper allows it to be more easily crimped, while it gives the additional important advantage of preventing the goring the vamp, and to these integrally-reduced portions the elastic goring D is secured with the same advantage as if stitched to separate thin topping-pieces, as heretofore. The extension of the reduced portion beneath the goring is to obtain the benefit of stitching it all round, to material that will yield with the goring and not cut it out.

I claim- 1. A leather congress-gaiter, having its upper portion reduced in thickness, as and for the purpose stated.

2. A congress-gaiter, having a thick footportion with the upper or ankle portion integral therewith, reduced by skiving or splitting, substantially as and for the purpose stated.

3. In a congress-gaitcr, the combination,

CHAS. D. BIGELOW. Witnesses:

A. E. H. JOHNsON, J. W. HAMILTON JoHNsoN. 

